GENE NUNN

Wild Horse and Burro Program

Ridgecrest Holding Facility

In the 1970's, they called him the "wild horse man" of the Pryor Mountains.

His honest respect and caring about the wild horses and burros is clearly shown when he talks about them, " I have alot of mixed feelings whether you should be gathering them or shouldn't be gathering them, I guess, maybe, the thing that you think about the most is seeing horses starve, die out on the range, that's not a pleasant sight, and I'd rather see one fat horse than ten real skinny ones thats ready to die."

Being a head wrangler is more than gathering horses... it means taking care of the ones that are sick or untangling a tricky burro.

On the burros in Death Valley..."every ole miner that come in here probably had a burro packing his plunder for him and ended up either the miner went broke or turned his burro lose and left or they just got away and I'm sure thats where they started. They're tough little guys. They live out here on not too much to eat and do just fine. "

In 1989, when the China Lake Naval Weapons Center contracted the BLM to gather excess wild horses, Gene was asked by a reporter how he felt about about the horses that get away at the last second, "You get mad when one of them old studs finally says "the hell with ya" and runs off but then you've gotta respect him. 'cause he's figured you out and he wants his freedom worse than he wants anything else."

Special thanks to Gene for caring.